Often times I use this blog as a bully pulpit of sorts when companies act in a negative way. The thought is two fold that it helps to vent a bit and it also helps everyone when the public holds companies accountable. The first step in that is for people to share their experiences. It goes without saying that anything I write here is just my experience and others may have had completely different experiences.
That said, it is much easier to write a blog post when something negative has happened and much more difficult to remember and write about all the positive things that happen numerous time each day. This week I had one incident that clearly stood out and made me pause to say – now that is how customer service is done! That company, Room and Board, is somewhat known for their good customer service. We’ve been to their store in SoHo numerous times and have many pieces of their furniture in our apartment. Since moving back to Austin, there is no store so we rely on their website. Recently, we were buying some chairs for our office. These chairs happened to be on special 15% off when we ordered them.
Unfortunately, when they arrived we had ordered slightly the wrong ones. They did not have adjustable arms – something which makes a huge difference in comfort, in my opinion. The ones w/ adjustable arms were not much more and it was a simple oversight when we clicked order. And, in my mind, one of the downfalls of web shopping – had we been present we surely would have sat in, tried out and picked out the right chairs.
I called into customer service to arrange a return and hopefully to get the correct chairs sent out. When I talked to the CSR she informed me that while she’d be happy to place the order for the new chairs, she would not be able to honor he sale price as the sale had ended the day before. I understood why she couldn’t do it, but some how it just felt wrong. After some discussion, I told her to just go ahead and process the return and that we’d get the chair someplace else or another time.
After I hung up the phone I was sitting there feeling bad about the entire thing. If I had just paid more attention we would have gotten the right chairs. If Room and Board wasn’t so inflexible. etc, etc. Just then my cell phone rang. It was the Room & Board customer service rep. She explained that she had just not felt right about not being able to give us the sale price and that she’d gone and presented our case to her manager. They’d agreed that despite the policy, in this instant, it made since to go ahead and extend the sale price for the replacement chair, if I’d like to order it. Absolutely, I said…. and the rest is history.
There are a few things about this that make this customer service done right. The foremost is that a customer service rep actually looked at the situation as the unique set of events that it was and was able to step outside of the rules to make an exception. The second was that she actually used her head to make this decision instead of just blindly following the computer screen. And finally, that she actually cared enough to take the time to see if she could make things better.
It was a small effort, but it went a long way and in my mind they’ve earned serious points and they’ve earned a customer for life. Anyone looking for quality home or office furnishings should seriously check them out. Online at http://www.roomandboard.com
